Why you should attend Tampa Code Camp this Saturday

by Joey deVilla on July 11, 2016

What’s Tampa Code Camp?

Tampa Code Camp is an annual community learning event for programmers in the Tampa Bay Area. This year’s edition takes place this Saturday, July 16th at the KForce offices, located just on the edge of Ybor City.

This year, Tampa Code Camp will feature 28 presentations across 4 tracks — cloud, web/mobile, .NET, and miscellaneous and open source — presented by local developers who are volunteering their time to share their knowledge. Tampa Code Camp is free to attend (but you need to register) and provides free donuts in the morning and a free lunch to attendees, thanks to the generosity of its sponsors.

He’s right. Learning to program is enhanced when conversing and collaborating with other programmers. It’s even better when you can find peers from whom you can learn, and who challenge to become better (Mom was right — you should choose your friends carefully). And finally, the time and effort you invest into the local developer community often pays off with interest.

For Tampa Bay developers, Tampa Code Camp is a great way to follow Lukas’ advice to his younger self. It’s a great way to meet your industry peers, and from my experience at past code camps, you’ll always find people from whom you can learn. The connections you make at code camps can greatly benefit both your personal and professional life. And finally and most importantly, events like this — events that educate, support, connect, and strengthen the developer community — help to build Tampa Bay’s tech social capital and make it a better place for developers to live and work.

What’s being presented at this year’s Tampa Code Camp?

Tampa Code Camp opens with a keynote by a person of note. Last year, it was Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who talked about the importance of helping grow Tampa’s technological sector, especially for small businesses and startups.

This year’s keynote speaker is Joe Darko (pictured on the right), Program Manager Evangelist with Microsoft. He’ll open this year’s Tampa Code Camp with a talk about community and what it means to Microsoft.

The day’s 28 technical presentations will start at 9:00 a.m. and will be arranged into four tracks:

Cloud

Web/mobile

.NET

Miscellaneous and open source

A free lunch (usually sandwiches) will be served from 11:50 a.m. to just before 1:00 p.m., and there will be an after-party sometime around 6:00 p.m. at a nearby location to be announced.

Who’s behind Tampa Code Camp?

Tampa Code Camp is a volunteer, labor-of-love effort by and for the Tampa Bay developer community. It’s pulled together every year by Greg Leonardo and Kate Leonardo, with the generous help of these sponsors…